Gloomy data carried by the global economy from the previous year, 2022, to enter the year 2023, in light of expectations of a global recession as a result of high inflation rates in the wake of the Corona pandemic and the ensuing international level of the Russia-Ukraine war, passing through many crises such as the rise in oil prices and others, but 2023 portrayed a picture. Suddenly different economics.
The Economist newspaper collected economic and financial indicators that included the rates and spread of inflation, gross domestic product, jobs and stock market performance for 35 countries.
Contrary to expectations, global GDP rose by an estimated 3%, according to The Economist, indicating strong economic growth, despite the challenges faced.
Labor markets maintained a kind of stability, while inflation rates witnessed a noticeable decline in several countries, in addition to a 20% rise in stock markets worldwide, as the newspaper reported.
Best performance
Behind these large positive indicators lie stories of economies that performed well during the year, and The Economist’s analyzes reveal the secret of these positive numbers achieved.
The Greek economy – for the second year in a row – ranked first in the Economist’s rankings, which the newspaper described as an “amazing achievement” for an economy that was previously known for its poor and failed management.
South Korea ranked second, at a time when many promising countries in the Americas distinguished themselves, as the United States came in third place, and Canada and Chile were not far from the forefront. While the Nordic countries in general were lagging behind, including Britain, Germany, Sweden and Finland, which were at the bottom of the ranking.
The newspaper said that confronting relentlessly increasing prices was the biggest challenge in 2023, noting the success of countries such as Japan and South Korea in controlling “core inflation,” keeping prices stable.
In Switzerland, core inflation rose by 1.3% year-on-year, and elsewhere in Europe, many countries are still facing serious pressures. But core inflation in Hungary has risen by more than 11% annually, which is what Finland is facing, according to the newspaper.
The newspaper notes that there has been a contraction in the inflation spread curve in the world, which calculates the rate of rise in the prices of items in the consumer basket, whose prices rose by more than 2% on an annual basis, which is less than expected.
The newspaper said that central banks that raised interest rates in 2022, as happened in Chile and South Korea, before many other countries, reaped the benefits of this increase this year as the inflation rate decreased.
Although 2023 did not record an amazing performance anywhere, only a small percentage of countries saw a decline in GDP, according to The Economist. Ireland recorded the largest decline in GDP, at 4.1%, and Britain and Germany also recorded poor performance. Germany is suffering from the repercussions of the energy price shock and increasing competition from imported Chinese cars. While Britain is still facing the consequences of post-Brexit, as the newspaper described.
good performance
The Economist considered that the United States achieved good performance in gross domestic product, as it benefited from record energy production, in addition to the effects of the generous financial incentives that were implemented between 2020 and 2021. This affected other countries as well, as employment in Canada increased more than expected.
But the newspaper pointed out that despite the good performance of the job market in the United States, it did not cast a complete shadow on the stock market there. The market, which includes high-tech companies that everyone thought was ready to benefit from the artificial intelligence revolution that began at the beginning of the year, disappointed. The market achieved average performance when measured by inflation.
The performance of the Australian stock market was below expectations, while stock prices in Finland fell, in contrast to the shares of Japanese companies, which are experiencing a period of renaissance, as described in the report, after rising by nearly 20%.
In addition to this great performance in the Japanese stock market, the performance of the Greek stock market emerged as the undisputed best, as the real value of the stock market there increased by more than 40%. Due to the government implementing a series of market-oriented economic reforms.
Although Greece remains far less wealthy than it was before its disaster in early 2010, the International Monetary Fund, which Athens previously described as an “enemy,” recently praised the “digital transformation of the economy” and its “increasing market competition.”
